UFOs from Costa Rica (1 Viewer)

Gaby Schulemann · May 8, 2004

Dear birders from all over the world,

in January/February I have been touring Costa Rica. It is my favorite birdwatching country so far, it was an amazingly beautiful trip. I've seen more than 200 species and I took a lot of photos, too. Most birds are already identified, but there are some "ufos" I couldn't identify so far. Maybe you can help me.

Here is some further information about where I've taken the photos. From left to right: Playa Tortuga/Pacific Coas, Selva Verde/Caribbean Lowland, Fortuna/Arenal Volcano area, Santa Elena Biological Reserve/Mist forest of Monteverde area, Carara National Park/Pacific Slope)

Bye,
Gaby

Jane Turner · May 8, 2004

Where are Cuckoroller and Rasmus when you need them! I can't help at all - bar to say 2 is an accipiter!

Chaiyan · May 8, 2004

From left to right,

1. female Chestnut-sided Warbler. White undertail coverts, white flank, and lack of white eyebrow exclude similar female Prairie Warbler. And the latter is more uncommon than the former.
2. adult Accipiter, probably Sharp-shinned since Cooper's is way less common.
3. female Scrub Euphonia.
4. female White-winged Becard.
5. Boy, got no clues on this one. Thought it's a juvenile passerine, that's all I could make. Let's see what others think. :bounce:

cuckooroller · May 8, 2004

Chaiyan said:
From left to right,

1. female Chestnut-sided Warbler. White undertail coverts, white flank, and lack of white eyebrow exclude similar female Prairie Warbler. And the latter is more uncommon than the former.
2. adult Accipiter, probably Sharp-shinned since Cooper's is way less common.
3. female Scrub Euphonia.
4. female White-winged Becard.
5. Boy, got no clues on this one. Thought it's a juvenile passerine, that's all I could make. Let's see what others think. :bounce:

Hi Chaiyan,

2. First thing I thought was Harpagus for some reason - will have to look at all of these later when I have more time.

for 1,4 substantially in agreement. 2 is certainly a female euphonia - have to look better to see if it is scrub.

5 is a problem, look at the short tail, looks juvenile and to me it looks like some kind of tyrannid.

:h?:

Gaby Schulemann · May 8, 2004

Hi,

thank you so much for your replies. We've seen lots of Dendroica pensylvanica in CR, but always male ones. So, as it seems, I am lucky because I got a photo of a female.

Around Selva Verde, there were many Buteo brachyurus, so what do you think, can 2 be one of them?

Well, and No. 5... I agree with you that it is a nightmare. Juveniles can drive you crazy. We've seen no adult birds close to it, so we don't have any hint.

Scrub Euphonia = could be. What do you think about female Yellow-throated Euphonia?
There was a male in the same bird feeding place, but I didn't see the two interact in any way.

White-winged Becard = I absolutely agree with you. Everything fits, even the behavior I found in a description.

Looking forward to any further suggestions and discusstions! Thanks so much!

Bye,
Gaby

Rasmus Boegh · May 8, 2004

Have to agree with Steve & Chaiyan.

1) Chestnut-sided Warbler, though I'm not going to say if it's a young bird or a female.
2) To me it seems to heavy for Sharp-shinned/Cooper's. I'd go with Steve on calling it a Double-toothed Kite, but I'm far from certain - the photo doen't give many clues - It's not to far from "name the bird with this stripe"!
3) Scrub Euphonia, female. The female of this species has a rather distinctive pattern for an Euphonia, as you can see on the photo.
4) White-winged Becard, female.
5) Erhm... It's a bird! Tyrant-flycathers can be very hard, in some cases even impossible to id for certain. Adding the fact that the bird on the photo is a very young individual (just look at the tail!)... good luck!

cuckooroller · May 8, 2004

Well guys,

Looks like most of the big guns are here. We really need Motmot on these, in particular, the last one. He is the real expert of Cricans but is still out bird-ringing on Majorca. Should be back in a week.

Gaby Schulemann · May 8, 2004

Hi Rasmus,

Rasmus Boegh said:
5) Erhm... It's a bird!

Bingo! :clap:

I know lots of juvenile birds from my area since I work in a wild bird aid project together with three friends. But juveniles from foreign countries... Well, that's far too complicated for me.

I have some other bird photos from Costa Rica here which are not yet identified. But the juvenile is the most complicated one.

Bye,
Gaby

Rasmus Boegh · May 8, 2004

Gaby,

didn't see your post until after I had written mine, so here's a few comments:

2) It could be many things, but one thing I am quite sure it's not is Buteo brachyurus. Yet again, the photo isn't giving to many clues.
3) In short (there are others): Female Yellow-throated Euphonia hasn't got the distinctive "hooded look" of female Scrub. Also note the typical bluish nape.
5) Many tyrant-flycatchers of the Neotropics present a problem unlike *ANY* in Europe. Several species are impossible to id for sure without voice. So, no matter how experianced in juvenile birds of Costa Rica, it could very well be that it just isn't possible to id it! I'll still go for just calling it a bird

Chaiyan · May 8, 2004

Gaby,

For the euphonia, gray crown/nape/breast side, and gray tint to mantle rule out Yellow-throated Euphonia.

I'd agree with Steve and Rasmus that Doubtle-toothed Kite (for #2) and Tyrannid (#5) is possible. The kite's race found in Costa Rica can have white base with such obvious flank barrings. Triangular-shaped bill with braod bill base would support a tyrannid as well.

Steve, what's your take on the accipiter-like plumage of the kite? I have a wild guess that it may be equivalent to aggressive mimicry of oriental honey-buzzard (the residential races) and oriental Spizaetus. Though cannot find thoughts on scientific sources. :bounce:

Chaiyan · May 8, 2004

For the short-tailed hawk, I might add that the juvie is plain buff on underparts and the adult plain pure white so that the hawk in question is very not likely to be one of the short-tailed. :bounce:

Rasmus Boegh · May 8, 2004

Chaiyan said:
Steve, what's your take on the accipiter-like plumage of the kite? I have a wild guess that it may be equivalent to aggressive mimicry of oriental honey-buzzard (the residential races) and oriental Spizaetus. Though cannot find thoughts on scientific sources. :bounce:

Could very well be. It has been suggested several times before, but I don't think anybody has taken the time and actually studied it (yet). Whatever the case, looking at behavior (among others feeding) it could very well be that the Accipiter-like plumage of Harpagus is due to aggressive mimicry.

cuckooroller · May 8, 2004

Chaiyan said:
Steve, what's your take on the accipiter-like plumage of the kite? I have a wild guess that it may be equivalent to aggressive mimicry of oriental honey-buzzard (the residential races) and oriental Spizaetus. Though cannot find thoughts on scientific sources. :bounce:

Chaiyan,
A thought-provoking question requiring a pondered response. Any type of response given my present knowledge of the two genera, Accipiter and Harpagus in this specific context, would be pure conjecture. I would have to know a lot more about the biology and behavior of these two where they range together. But to conjecture, I guess the principal advantage would be to Harpagus, probably the less naturally pugnacious of the two that may draw benefit by resembling Accipiter.

Motmot · Aug 21, 2007

I just found this very old thread and wanted to add my impressions:

#1 agree Chestnut-sided W.
#2 can´t be sure. Broad-winged Hawk or Double-toothed Kite seem to be the best poss.
#3 Yellow-throated Euphonia. White belly, big looking Euphonia on a table feeder and location are the clues. Scrub Euphonia is a Pacific lowland bird, far from the Arenal area.
#4 I´m pretty sure is a Yellowish Flycatcher (Empidonax flavescens). It´s a very common bird is the Monteverde area, almost always stays low and it´s a very tame-fairly easy to photograph species. White-winged Becard is not found in cloud forest in CRica but usually much lower.
#5 It looks similar to a Spadebill (2 species at Carara) but bill shape doesn´t look right. It´s probably a tyrannid but I can´t say for sure which one.

Cheers,
Eduardo

Rasmus Boegh · Aug 21, 2007

Lots of experianced gained since the older responce, so I'll contradict a few of the old conclusions:

1) Nothing to add.
2) Broad-winged Hawk.
3) Eduardo (et al) got it.
4) Slaty-capped Flycatcher (???). Regardless of this being correct or not, I am not convinced about Yellowish Flycatcher.
5) clearly a female Manakin. Haven't checked which species occur at the locality, but my first hunch when seeing the photo was Pipra sp.

Chris Benesh · Aug 21, 2007

Hi All,

1. Chestnut-sided Warbler.

2. Double-toothed Kite. It looks like you can see a hint of the dark central throat stripe, and the structure of the head is unique too with rearward placed eyes.

3. Female Euphonia. Doesn't the white midriff, association, and location suggest Yellow-throated?

4. This one I can't work out satisfactorily. Im not sure I agree with the female White-winged Becard notion though. The visible face pattern and tail structure seem wrong for that species (can't find corroborating image showing WWBE with complete eyering wrapping around rear of eye, and the tail looks partially fanned, yet not real sign of pale tipped graduated outer rectrices). Also the head seems smallish for a becard, but maybe it's just the angle. Also, how often do female WWBE show such whitish edgings to the tertials? It also doesn't seem structured like an Empidonax to me (and its choice of perch seems odd for that), it's got those strong tertial edgings, yet no apparent wing bars, and the illusion of a gray crown. The structure is sort of reminiscent of a Tolmomyias flycatcher, a weird tyrannulet or something - stuck.

5. Looks like a female/immature Red-capped Manakin to me. See:
http://www.arthurgrosset.com/sabirds/photos/piprub8982.jpg
http://www.justbirds.org/Belize/Red-capped manakin 2.jpg

Note: I see that Rasmus has changed his view on 3, 4 and 5 too in the time I was writing up this long-winded post, so some of these are redundant at this point. What about that #4?

Chris

Chris Benesh · Aug 21, 2007

Chris Benesh said:
Hi All,
2. Double-toothed Kite. It looks like you can see a hint of the dark central throat stripe, and the structure of the head is unique too with rearward placed eyes.

Or perhaps not that unique:
http://www.carolinanature.com/pix/panama/139_3904broad-wingedhawk032804.jpg

Plumage may favor BWHawk.

Chris

Motmot · Aug 21, 2007

re #4. It´s a confusing pic and cloud forest light may be making a harder id. I agree Slaty-capped Fly looks a fairly good match, even tertial design looks better for it but it´s at best a very rare bird up there in Santa Elena, back is probably not as bright green and usually behaves quite wary and perches at medium to high levels, but who knows...
Head in Yellowish Flycatcher is usually a bit darker and duller than the bright green back, likes perching low and is a tame bird.

Two pics of Yellowish:

http://www.tekipaki.jp/~texbird/images/YellowishFlycatcher.jpg
http://www.carolinanature.com/pix/panama/3885yellowishflycatcher032804.jpg

and a good looking Slaty-capped:

http://www.homepages.mcb.net/wormwell/Slaty-capped Flycatcher_CRMAR07.jpg

Cheers

Edit: #5 IS a Manakin :t: . Chris links look like an excellent match.

Motmot · Aug 21, 2007

I´ve just reread Chris´ post and found this: "It also doesn't seem structured like an Empidonax to me (and its choice of perch seems odd for that)". I´m not sure I understand this correctly, please help me. Do you mean the branch the bird is perching on is odd for a Yellowish Fly?
Gracias amigo
Cheers,
Eduardo

Chris Benesh · Aug 22, 2007

Motmot said:
I´ve just reread Chris´ post and found this: "It also doesn't seem structured like an Empidonax to me (and its choice of perch seems odd for that)". I´m not sure I understand this correctly, please help me. Do you mean the branch the bird is perching on is odd for a Yellowish Fly?

Hi Eduardo,

It doesn't mean much, honestly. :-O It is probably the angle of the photo more than anything else, but it struck me as a somewhat unnatural perch choice for an empid, with such a steeply sloped, yet thick branch. There are certainly other examples of such on the web, so it's just me blowin' hot air.

Chris

UFOs from Costa Rica (1 Viewer)

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Eduardo Amengual

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So much work, so little time...so let's go birding

So much work, so little time...so let's go birding

Eduardo Amengual

Eduardo Amengual

So much work, so little time...so let's go birding

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